Interview Transcript

Interview Date: 01 June 2020

Interviewer: Dr. Justin D Shanks

Interview Participant: Sadie Caltrider

 

JS [00:00:00] To start off just a little bit of background.

 

SC [00:00:01] So I’m Sadie Caltrider, I work for Beaverhead County. I work uh part time as a disaster and emergency services coordinator and the other 50 percent of my time is split as uh administrative support for our planning and sanitation offices. I also kind of do 911 dispatching sometimes on the side. And uh I'm a grad student for, UM, for uh working on my master's in public administration and I don't have a lot of free time beyond that,but when I do, I have uh a three year old and a five year old and my husband and I live here in Dillon, so we spend all the time outside and with our dogs and kids. And that's it. 

 

JS [00:00:41] Nice. That's fantastic. It looks like the weather is beautiful, right? Yeah. Good. Good. Um, so how long have you lived in Dillon? 

 

SC [00:00:52] Uh, ten years. Ten and a half years. Yeah, I moved here in January 2010 to go to school at Montana Western. 

 

JS [00:01:00] Okay and where were where were you before that? Are you from Montana? 

 

SC [00:01:03] I am. Yeah. I grew up in Missoula. 

 

JS [00:01:06] Okay. So Missoula and Dillon. Okay. Um, and so if if you were speaking with a friend and you wanted to tell them about Dillon and how great it is or how challenging it might be, or you kind of describe the community, how would you describe Dillon to someone uh in terms of what you like about it, who lives there? What's it like to live there? Are there any challenges? 

 

SC [00:01:27] Um, it's a really uh tight knit community, so I think it's difficult. Uh, it's one of the towns where it's difficult, if you're an outsider, to really kind of get into the community. Um, it's a ranching community. So if you're not kind of part of that scene, it's hard to make connections where you make any sort of impact. Meaning um like you're probably not going to be a county commissioner unless you're a rancher, that sort of thing. Um, other than that, it's a pretty town. There is a lot of outdoor recreation. That's what kept us here. My husband likes to hunt and fish and there's a lot of that here. Um,it's sort of an affordable market place for housing compared to you know Missoula or Bozeman. Um, yeah, it's just uh quiet. Not a lot going on. Small town. That's about it. 

 

JS [00:02:18] Alright and could you just give us a quick comparison to your experience living in Missoula versus living in Dillon. It’s similarities, differences? 

 

SC [00:02:25] Yeah, um lot of the differences that are just that, it seems like things just haven't quite caught up here. It feels like we're about 20 years behind. Um, you know, Internet access is spotty and the services aren't great. Um, cell phone access is really difficult sometimes unless you're right near town. There's like our county government doesn't take any forms of electronic payment. You can't do anything online here. You have to physically always go to an office and always pay cash or check. Um, yeah, there's just a lot of it seems like everybody's sort of still adverse to technology here. And I think that that might be the demographic. There's a lot of retirees here. So unless you're part of the university scene, that's a whole other click, the professors and stuff outside of that, everybody is pretty technology adverse. 

 

JS [00:03:14] Okay, great. Thank you. So now we know a little bit about you and your experiences in Dillon, I want to chat with you about information accessibility. So um just understanding your practices and issues and decisions regarding information access. So uh first and foremost, how do you currently get your news information? 

 

SC [00:03:36] Uh, online and I am a subscriber to The New York Times. So that's uh my main source of information. Um and then for local more local to Montana information, I usually um I’m subscribed to get notifications from like KPNX in Missoula and that sort of things. So I get the breaking news coverage here, but I get it all electronically. I don't do I'm not subscribed to any physical newspapers um or anything like that. I read occasionally our local newspaper because it's delivered to the courthouse. And so I'll peek at that. That's. Yeah. 

 

JS [00:04:11] So can you uh, so why no print sources of media? Why why the preference for electronic? 

 

SC [00:04:20] Uh, I'm sort of paper adverse. I just don't like the waste that comes with a lot of that. And um I just feel like it's easier. I don't subscribe to any magazines or anything like that either. I like to I pay for, I'd rather pay for an online subscription if I think that it's worth it. And so I feel like The New York Times for me is the most comprehensive for what I pay for it. I think as a student. Right, I pay five dollars a month for it is all. And it it's pretty I well balanced news. Good uh journalistic integrity. So. 

 

JS [00:04:55] And what about face to face or oral news? I mean, talking with people um to to get maybe perhaps more local information or if it's regional or global

 

SC [00:05:06] Sure.

 

JS[00:05:07] Any of that that type of news know, 

 

SC [00:05:09] Anything that’s you know actually newsworthy and not just ranting with friends and family, I you know I work at the courthouse, so I attend a lot of public meetings. Uh, I'm part of a lot of public meetings. So when there's something of interest to me, even as a citizen, um like the commissioner's agenda or on city council. I do live outside of city limits so I don't attend those as often because they um even if you have something to say, they don't really want to acknowledge you if your address isn't within the city limits. 

But I do attend a lot of commission meetings and that sort of thing. And and kind of find out what's going on in the community that way. So being, I don't know if I didn't work at the county, how I would get that information as well. If that makes sense other than just attending public meetings, which are always during the day. So those would be more difficult if I didn't work there. Uh, trying to work that around a work schedule. 

 

JS[00:05:58] Okay. Great thanks. Um so now thinking back in time a little bit, um, what is your earliest memory of watching, listening to or reading news? 

 

SC[00:06:12] Uh, probably my earliest memories would be um news watching news with my parents. And I must've been four or five and I think it was um, uh Bill Clinton's election maybe, not sure, a presidential election in whatever would be like round ninety four, ninety five, whichever one that was I do you remember some of that. And then uh my mom watching the O.J. Simpson trials. So that would be my earliest stuff about, yeah, sensational media and that sort of thing.

JS[00:06:48] Okay so that was watching television uh for those?

 

SC[00:06:52] Yeah, 

 

JS[00:06:53] Okay, and so now trying to think about from those early memories, four or five years old, watching news on television with your parents to uh currently where you're getting most your news via online, uh subscription to

 

SC[00:07:05] Oh uhI forgot to add.

 

JS[00:07:06] the New York Times

 

SC[00:07:07]  I forgot to add, uh, I also listen to NPR every day on the way back and forth to work for oral news.

 

JS[00:07:14] Okay, awesome. Yeah okay so online and radio. Okay.

 

SC[00:07:16] Yes. 

 

JS[00:07:17] Okay so thinking of the full range, you know, over the last couple of decades. Right. So you're 4, 5 years old. You're watching TV news and thenyou know, to today where you're reading New York Times online. You’re listening to NPR in the car or reading maybe a local, uh, some of the local notifications from current events in Missoula, how has your access to news and information changed from when you were four or five years old to now? What's been the transition or change like? 

 

SC[00:07:48] Um, I think the hhmmh, well a big part of it, I think as far as how we access it, is we’re cable cutters, you know, so I don't watch any major news networks or anything like that we’re only, you know, I do listen to some podcasts. But again, it's really easy to select kind of what goes toward your beliefs, so I listen to, you know, predominantly probably left leaning, even though you want to think of them as more centered. Whatever your belief is, you think you're the most rational person you know. Um so I listen to podcasts or, you know, NPR, read The New York Times, that sort of thing. And that's not probably what I was doing in high school even it was just whatever was on cable because that's what we had. We didn't have you know all this cable cutting when I was a kid, so. 

 

JS[00:08:35] Sure, sure um and you mentioned this a little bit earlier, but um can you talk about Internet access at home? It's fast, slow, reliable, unreliable?

 

SC[00:08:45] Um, it's been reliable. We use a local provider instead. So in Dillon, your options are kind of uh CenturyLink or is it Charter Now, Bresnin, whatever it’s been changing over the years um as the major providers. And then we use a local guy here that provides and so the service is pretty reliable, but it's not, the speed’s not great. You know, I had him turn it up. I'm not sure exactly what to. But whatever the site, you know, higher than I had it for working at home the last couple weeks. And it didn't really seem to make a difference. Um, and our usage isn't huge. Usually my husband and my cell phones and then probably something streaming in the background for the kids. So we're not you know, we don't have, like, big powerful computers, we’re not gamers, anything like that, so. 

 

JS[00:09:28] Okay we're going to.

 

SC[00:09:31] And it's not always adequate for that, so. 

JS[00:09:35] Great. Um and so you just mentioned yourself, do you own a smartphone?

 

SC[00:09:39] Yes. Yeah. My husband, I both are smartphone people. 

 

JS[00:09:45] Okay uh Apple, Android?

 

SC[00:09:45] [simultaneously] So just the two in the house

 

SC [00:09:46] Yes, they are. My husband's got a pixel, so a Google smartphone. And I've got yeah a Samsung Galaxy. Yeah. 

 

JS[00:09:55] Okayand could you just quickly describe how you use your phone on a daily basis? Is it predominantly for phone or is it for email or text messaging or do you get a lot of news and information on the phone? 

 

SC [00:10:07] Um, kind of a combination of everything. So I've got three email accounts hooked up to it that I'm managing all the time between work, school and my personal stuff. So I use it a lot to a lot for email communication. Um and then probably the least is actual phone unless I’m talking to my parents or calling, you know, for some business thing. Um, but you have predominantly email and then news. I read my news on it every morning, that sort of thing. I'm an app person that way. 

 

JS[00:10:37] Okay um and what about social media? Do you use any social media accounts? 

 

SC [00:10:43] I had to cut Facebook during Corona virus. It is just too much. Um, I'm on Instagram, but that's about it. It feels lighter most of the time. Till this week, it's not so much, but at least it feels when things are bad, more proactive than so much uh as much negativity as there is sort of in Facebook for me. 

 

JS[00:11:05] Okay. So let's let's talk um about social media and news or information real quickly. So um you just mentioned up your Facebook a little uh bit heavy, Instagram a little bit lighter. Um what sorts of differences do you see in the information that that you access via Facebook versus the information that you access or receive by Instagram? 

 

SC [00:11:30] I think with Facebook, it's a lot uh by design, easier for people to throw out whatever beliefs they have or ideas they have at the moment. It's a lot of word vomit and Instagram is uh more visual. So I think that it's just harder for my grandma who is, uh, would never have an Instagram but somebody like her to get on Instagram and then figure out how to make a picture of whatever weird rant she wants to have that day, you know? And it's a lot more. You know, I'm not a public figure, so mine's really locked down, I don't have as much uh garbage comments on it, I guess, people, that sort of thing. 

 

JS[00:12:12] Okay yeah thank you. Uh, so we're going to shift gears a little bit from information, access to information evaluation or uh information trustworthiness. So um basically trying to get a sense of how to evaluate the information that you access via these uh different these different mediums, these different options. So when you read a news article, uh you hear a new segment or you see a social media post or receive some other information orally or by e-mail or whatever the case might be, um, how do you determine if that information is reliable, factual, trustworthy? 

 

SC [00:12:48] Um, I kind of go by a rule of thumb that if it feels salacious, it probably is. And so if it's something that I really care about or want to know whether or not that's true, instead of continuing squirreling, I'll usually get on Google and just see what comes up from various news sites. When you try and figure out what that is and then um I try and stay away from, you know, any sort of large like Fox News or even MSNBC, that sort of thing, that really seemed to put more of a salacious spin on it or, you know, the adjectives they use to describe something happening, um I try and go with something that feels a little more balanced. So if I can find an article, you know, um usually written journalism is what I prefer, if I can find an article online. It just I don't know why, but that does feel more like uh like it has more integrity, something like The New York Times or printed through NPR. Or, you know, Washington Post, L.A. Times, things like that. Uh, some of the big, you know, major foundational newspapers, something like that, just feels like there's more journalistic integrity there. 

 

JS [00:13:56] Okay, um so you just used the terms of balanced and journalistic integrity, can you? What what does this mean to you? 

 

SC [00:14:07] Uh to me, it would mean reporting the facts. I also don’t, I try and stay away from anything that, which can be hard even in mediums that I do feel are usually balanced, I try and stay away from things that are like, here's the story, but, you know, here's the other side, because I just I don't buy into a lot of the whole the old adage that there's two sides to every story. Sometimes there's just facts. And so that's what I want to hear. I don't want to hear, ‘well, here's the facts, but this is how their you know, their opinion refutes’ that type of thing. So they are fair and balanced. I'm just I'm looking for data driven stuff. If they have if they can put me in the direction through their writing of research or where they came up with this information, I feel like that's more valuable to me. Uh, studies, that sort of thing, it feels like they did ya know their job. And then it's nice to be able to have the links to that so you can read it for yourself and see what information they picked out of that for their article. 

 

JS [00:15:09] Okay, great. Thank you. Uh, so along those lines um in the last couple of years, there's been a lot of attention to concepts like post truth and fake news, alternative facts. Um, so I'm just wondering if either of those three phrases means anything to you, if you've heard those things before. If you have, uh what do you make of them? What do they mean to you? 

 

SC [00:15:33] Uh, yeah, I've heard them all before. I don't think you can avoid it now. Um, I just think that they are ways for, to incite people, to divide people, to make people choose some side or the other. And there's no room for, I think it's a way to keep people from making any decisions themselves or researching anything. You know, if somebody says this happened and the person that's being accused or at the center of the story says, ‘well, that that's just a lie. They made up about me’ then, I don't know,we're just in such a weird climate where people have these allegiances in politics are more like choosing a football team and you can't ever, you know, it would be uh blasphemy to to believe anything against your team. And that's I don't know. It just feels like the critical thinking has been taking out taken out of it for us, especially through, like, broadcast journalism a lot of times. So, yeah, that's all I make of it, it's just a smoke and mirrors, I don’t know. 

 

JS [00:16:36] That’s nice, I I like the the uh ‘politics is more like choosing a football team.’ That’s a good little snippet. Uh, so uh speaking about fake news and alternative facts uh in particular, um do you think that fake news and alternative facts are a problem in journalism or in news, if you want to separate news from journalism? Or if you want to think about them the same that’s fine. Do you think it's problematic? 

 

SC [00:17:05] Uh, I think I think what's probably more problematic is the branding, you know, you're allowed to brand things, you know, a whole network like Fox News or even MSNBC as a news organization, when a lot of the segments on there are, you know, pundits throwing back and forth some ideas and those, you know, are inter interviewing people for ideas. And it's not news. But people have come to believe that because the name says news, it is news. And so everything they hear on that is gospel. Yeah, I don't know if, that's where I'm at with that I guess. 

 

JS [00:17:41] Okay so you had earlier drawn a distinction between written journalism vs. mainstream media journalism or broadcast journalism. Uh, do you think fake news and or alternative facts are more problematic in one area versus the other? Or equally problematic? 

 

SC [00:18:02] Um, they're probably equally problematic. I just I feel like this is going to be really uh rude to say probably, but I think that the um people who have more education, maybe even just a regular college degree because, I mean, you could get a bachelor's degree in underwater basket weaving and you’re probably still required to do some research papers and some thoughts about whether or not a source is valid and how to kind of look for the information. And so I think when people don't have those tools, it's a lot easier to go to something that says it's news because you can buy a domain name that says you're a news organization and print whatever you want. And people say, well, I saw it on the news. So I yeah, again, I feel like it just goes back to branding and there's just no accountability for what's actually news and what isn't news. Anybody can call themselves news and if people don't have the tools to discern that, that's gonna be an issue. 

 

JS [00:19:05] Great. Thank you very much. So final question, in respect to trustworthiness and alternative facts, um where where do you think alternative facts come from? 

 

SC [00:19:19] [Laughter] I mean, yeah, I just think that that was another whole it's a Trumpism. I mean, they just said it to refute things and it's just easier to say, oh, it's fake news. It's a lie they made up about me because they hate me. And that I mean, it's just a one of those ridiculous phrases that have permeated our lives that should have never happened in my opinion. 

 

JS [00:19:45] Great, thank you very much. So shifting from information evaluation to information sharing uh I want to chat a little bit about what, how and why you decide to share information. So uh just in sort of big, broad terms. What types of information do you share with others? 

 

SC [00:20:05] Uh, I don't share a ton of information, I guess what I usually try and share is just to keep things light. Um, I feel like my job, especially the last few weeks, as an education officer for um uh an incident here in Beaverhead county. So I'm sharing a lot of information with our local news, newspaper, and Facebook and all that sort of stuff. But as far as what I personally share my stuff, um I had to get rid of Facebook because I try and share things that I feel like are, I don't know, maybe, advocacy type things like I try and share things that I feel like align with my values, but also are like, for instance, this week on my Instagram, I've shared a lot of stuff about uh the riots for, you know, uh George Floyd. And I just feel like where we live in Montana, where there's not a lot of diversity, especially in a place like Dillon, that it's valuable to try to share information that brings a different perspective, uh you know, perspectives for people of color, women, just things like that, where here, especially where we're at, is very conservative. Um and I just don't think that people value those things or people or even if they say that they're not, uh you know, they're not racist or they're not antifeminist or things like that, they're still really rubbed the wrong way by these types of things and I think that they just don't. It's not something that we're. I don't know. I think that there's just an inherent bias in a lot of Montana because uh we're allowed to do it. It's easier to not look at these things and pretend that they don't exist when we don't, when we have a more monoculture here. I

guess I don't know. I think I'm ranting. [Laughter]. 

 

JS [00:22:07] No, no, not at all. That's that's great. Um that's very good. 

 

SC [00:22:12] Yeah. I just try and share things that I believe in and feel like need a voice. Even though I don't really have much of a platform, I still think it's important for people to see it and for it to get out there. 

 

JS [00:22:22] Great. Yeah. Thank you. Um so thinking this is a good thing if it hypothetically or you can give a specific example if you like, but uh when you receive a piece of information and say, you know, it aligns with your your values and it provides a different perspective for people that you may share it with, um how do you decide whether or not to share that piece of information? 

 

SC [00:22:49] I don't uh I don't know how I would answer that. Probably just honestly how I feel at the moment and how passionate I am about it or how much of my brain space that particular thing is taking up you know this week. And that's uh kind of the issue, is there's kind of a new cause d’jour everyday type thing. So I have limited hours in the day. I'm busy. And so it really is like how much it has impacted me personally or mentally or anything like that, whether or not I feel like sharing it. There are causes that I'm like, oh, that's awful and whatever. But I'm not. I just don't really spend the time getting into that. You know, I read it and I like seeing it from other people, but it's not something I'm pushing out. I guess just. Yeah, I'm not sure how I choose that. 

 

JS [00:23:38] Very situational. It sounds like. 

 

SC [00:23:40] Yeah. 

 

JS [00:23:42] And do you find yourself sharing information face to face, orally or more digitally?I mean, what, what, what sort of you are your primary platform for sharing information. 

 

SC [00:23:53] I would say digitally and then orally, it really umI, I really just discuss these things probably with the people in my life that have likeminded views when it comes to orally. I try and keep a lot of that out of the office. All my bosses share much different views than I do. And so a lot of it's just trying to fly under the radar and job protection and that sort of thing, I guess. So I don't talk about a lot of it at work because I know that it would just be met with, I don’t know, arguments. It's not worth it. Not worth dealing with at my job. So again, yeah, and I don't I don't I'm not a big social person. I don't go out and do a lot of stuff. So if I'm not talking to my spouse or my parents or a couple friends I have, I don't really discuss it with a lot of people. My spouse is uh my husband probably just is wants to wants it all to stop some day. I bother him with it a lot. 

 

JS [00:24:51] Great, thanks. So the final question about information sharing uh is thinking about either Dillon specifically or Montana more broadly versus other places around the country or around the world. And um the question is, do you think information, information is shared differently in Montana than it is in other places? And uh if yes why or if no, why not? 

 

SC [00:25:18] I mean, I think it's definitely yes, because of I don't know. I think our access is different here. You know, there's still a lot of I live in a county with seven frontier schools, you know, and so I know that those those schools have different access or limited access to certain information. And so that affects what those kids are hearing at school or taking home. There's people that live in this community that don't have computers at home. And and I'm sure that there's many parts of the country that face that for socioeconomic reasons. But I feel like a lot of at least a portion of why we face out here is definitely geographic, why we don't have access to that stuff, so people don't buy smartphones and laptops when you live in the big hole valley because you know, you don't have access to that sort of thing there. Um, yeah, I, I, I think too, in places like Montana that are more rural, I think that we're still kind of adverse to there, there's a distrust, I guess, of the media. Um and I don't know if that's because we're rural Montana or because we're more conservative. And there's been that trend. Um, yeah and then just I don't think we've got a few major newspapers here, but they're all owned by, you know, Lee Enterprise. So you're getting a certain look and style and feel to the journalism here. And I don't know how that affects uh what's reported out there, but I imagine it does, just like every publication. And yeah, uh, I just I think the small towns just it's harder to get information. There's a lot of people that don't socialize unless they're at the post office or the grocery store. They live so far apart and they don't have access to that sort of thing. So. Well, the best thing they have is like cable news and that's what they're getting. So, yeah, yeah. I think that our information may be shared a little differently because of those constraints that we have here that are more unique to at least western United States than other places. 

 

JS [00:27:27] Okay, so you just mentioned a couple of really good points about uh geography and rurality and lack of access to technology or maybe some distrust of media outlets. So if folks in Montana aren't necessarily sharing information or accessing or sharing information via smartphone or other, not subscribing to The New York Times online because they don't have reliable Internet or uh they don't have a device to read that, how do you think they are accessing and sharing information? You mentioned sort of the post office example just a moment ago. Do you think it's more face to face or is it, another? Ah. 

 

SC [00:28:09] I think that that it's probably generational, too. I think that a lot of the older people are doing more face to face stuff here and then the younger people, you know, if they don't have access and you’re, you know, living at home and on the ranch, that's different. I think that a lot of people my age don't live at home anymore, live, we're using technology more. We were required to in college, you know, and it's things that we choose to live with. I think in a lot of ways it's harder to live without. I think you have to actively avoid getting an email address these days if you wanted to. Don't how you do that. And yeah, I do. I do think a lot of it's more face to face with uh with at least the people that live in more rural parts of the state, probably their small publications. I know here in Dillon we've got a little it's called the Dillonite Daily, like a little gossip rag. And the local newspapers, people put a lot of I don't know if it's as popular and like The Missoulian as it is in small newspapers where people are writing, you know, like waring op ed, or editorials or letters to the editor where they're just arguing us and town. We have a couple that happen every week. They just are you back and forth everyday. So things like that. Yeah, I think that that's that's how people are doing it here. A lot of face to face. 

 

JS [00:29:31] Okay. Thanks. So we've talked a little bit. Just very briefly, a couple of mentions here and there about Covid-19 aka the Coronavirus. And I want to ask a couple of specific questions about information access, trustworthiness, ensuring that respect to Covid-19. So in early March, Covid-19 really uh sort of took root in Montana as a result, you know from basically early March up until the present time, um you know, we've had some changes in the way that people are moving around, changes in business operation, um changes at work. And that has uh also changed some behaviors with respect to information, access, information, analysis and information sharing. So um I'm just wondering, do you find yourself consuming more or less news uh in the last couple of months? 

 

SC [00:30:28] Uh, certainly more. And I think um some of that was because my position is the public information officer for our Corona virus response here locally. I was trying to, you know, stay on top of um like what are the local regulations, watching the governor's announcements, reading those documents, uh watching the news, watching the you know, checking the map daily at 10:00 a.m. to see what our updates are. Uh, we were certainly pushing out information, especially initially through, I was pushing out messages through our reverse 911 and made a separate page on our county website for keeping track of that locally. So there was a lot of consumption there. And then, yeah, I just uh in general, I'm, I like to read the news daily and then I get the updates all day long and probably be better for my mental health if I turn off notifications, but uh yeah, I've just, I think that there's been a lot to consumer with this and so probably more than I did before. 

 

JS [00:31:30] Okay, uh and you sort of alluded to this, but any sense of mental anguish or overwhelmingness uh as a result of increased consumption of news pertinent to Covid-19? 

 

SC [00:31:41] Oh, yes, certainly. Um I think, yeah, with the news, it was stressful. The lifestyle change was stressful. I was working at home and had two small kids at home with me all day. And that made that difficult. Um yeah, I mean, I saw I saw my doctor and uh started antidepressants you know a few weeks ago. And that's first time in my life. Even though I've struggled with it my whole life uh being medicated because it was just, just too many things kind of compiled on and I think that the news certainly just feels like doom and gloom and like there's nothing you can do to fix it. You can't shake people awake that don't think this is real. And so, yeah, it's it's, I think that's been most difficult is just the fight uh locally and statewide to convince people that our response was adequate and correct and not an overstepping. That's that's where my mental anguish came from. Cuz we just didn't have a lot of support locally from our county commissioners about what we were doing here. So. 

 

JS [00:32:45] Okay, thank you, uh and very much. Following up on that, uh what's your understanding of Covid-19?

 

SC [00:32:57] [Laughter] Uh from what perspective? I mean, I obviously this is something we're going to be living with for quite a while until there's uh at least adequate antivirals to treat it and uh hopefully someday, at some point, a a good vaccine. Um, yeah, I just think that it's just some I hope as a disaster and emergency service person, we talk about preparation all time. I hope that this has changed the way certain people uh think about their lives and about their preparedness for life and also, you know, business owners, how they respond to these sort of things and and what things in life are really necessary. I don't know if that makes sense, how to how to prioritize things differently. You know, I'd like to see people prioritize people and themselves and their employees over things uh like profits and different things, ya know.

 

JS [00:33:52] Yeah, thank you. Uh so we had just a moment ago talked about um your increased consumption of news, you know, pertinent to Covid-19 and um it's very similar to the question I asked earlier. How do you make sense of that information? How do you determine if it's trustworthy, factual, reliable? Yea, what’s the process like for that? 

 

SC [00:34:13] Um I think I've been trying to stick to really um sort of what's coming out of the CDC as far as what we should be doing and trying to trust uh that we're getting adequate information from them, which my only concern is what they're getting, you know, what they may or may not be getting from their leadership as far as support or funding for that. Um and then, yeah, I think it's just been really difficult to wade through because there's new information all the time and sometimes it's contradictory. So I'm trying to make uh sure that my sources are things that are, you know, medical studies. And when they are medical studies, how big was that study? How long does that study, who participated in that study and just kind of keep like an awareness that these things are out there and they're going on and they're working on this stuff. But uh just because the headline says, oh you know, this vaccines moved forward to human trials and shown great support and then he read it and there's only, you know, a few dozen people in it. That's great, but you've got to be mindful that that's not, you know, in the world of science, that that's not doesn't mean we're having a vaccine tomorrow. So I think you're just trying to wade past the headlines to where that information came from. 

 

JS [00:35:23] Sure so looking for authoritative sources like the CDC, relying on data, primary science. Yeah, yeah. Also looking past the headlines. That's another good. Yeah. So just a big open ended question. Is there anything else about, you know, news, information, access, evaluation, sharing? Maybe we haven't talked about and thought we should talk about or, you know, anything you want to sort of add to the end there.

 

SC [00:35:58] Oh, um yeah. I mean, locally for Montana, I guess if that's uh sort of the scope of your research, I just think it would be um I think that there just needs to be a lot more uh money spent, which I know that that's hard to come by, making sure that there is uh adequate connections to all these rural communities. That these people have cell phone coverage and they have Internet access that's adequate. Um, I don't think most of Montana's Internet access meets you know FCC minimum speeds. Uh so things like that it would just be really nice to uh see more money spent on thatas far as like uh infrastructure projects, and then uh ultimately, I think it'd be really interesting, I don't know if will happen and it and it you know, in individual school districts it may never happen. Just maybe some better education in public school before you get to college about what good research is, what good data is, how to how to look at these sites that say that they're news and find out that they might not really be news. How do you research that any? I think even for those of us who've done research uh for work or for school or anything like that, there's times where you read something, it it can be a deep dive to find out whether or not it's a reliable source, uh there things can look great. They can sound great. They can produce data sets that might look great, but how do you find out if it's real or if it's not real? Um so I think that that would be education, starting with kids uh before you decide not to go to college, that you'd have the ability to look at that. So and then uh even maybe more rules or I don't know, I don't think, about who's allowed to call themselves news. I guess, I don't know, is there a definition of that? And how do you register as that or do you need to have a disclaimer that you're really an entertainment agency? These are entertainment pieces or more emphasis at the beginning of a segment or an article that this is an opinion piece. And, you know, things like that. Yeah,I don't know. I do think that you can, you're never gonna be able to help everybody understand these things. People are going to believe what wanna believe. Uh I think at the end of the day, more than anything. So, I wish it was different. 

 

JS [00:38:29] Well, those are three good uh three good aspects, certainly to work on uh to make it a more informed news and information consumption, right? 

 

SC [00:38:39] Lofty goals.

 

JS [00:38:40]  Yeah, well, lofty goals are great. Um so Sadie, thanks so much for making time. Uh I'm glad we had this opportunity to talk. I really appreciate your comments and, you know, just reach out by e-mail if you have any questions. 

 

SC [00:38:51] I will, thank you Justin. Have a good day.

 

JS [00:38:53] Alright, thank you Sadie. Bye bye.